Underneath the Underneath
by Akane Arihyoshi
Summary: A fic about Sasuke's life after the massacre. About halfway through, changes to Kakashi's point of view. Spoilers for the massacre, and episodes 1-10. Also spoilers for Obito.


Story: Underneath the Underneath

Author: Akane Arihyoshi

Disclaimer: If I owned Sasuke, or Kakashi, I would love my life. But I don't, so I don't. My birthday's coming up soon, though. I'm hoping for Kakashi. In a box. With ribbon. Lots of ribbon. In fact, I'm gonna need a lot of candles on my cake, just so I can wish for him. No, I'm not 40. I just need 40 million candles to wish for the most awesome person alive.

Where was I? Where are you? READ MY STORY. STOP READING THESE STUPID AUTHOR NOTES. WHAT ARE YOU, SOME SORT OF NERD?! WHO READS THESE THINGS ANYWAYS?! Except me... Shut up. READ IT. Go ahead, look down. At the story. Not at yourself. Because looking down there at yourself is just gay. With yourself. America sucks, doesn't it? READ. THIS TIME I MEAN IT.

* * *

After the massacre of the Uchiha clan, Sasuke didn't speak for a week. After the first day, he even refused to cry. The normally happy child had retreated into himself, lost in his sorrow and confusion. Who could blame him? His last remaining family member was the one responsible for the deaths of the rest. He had no one left.

The first words the boy said after the first silent week were "I'll kill him," and it seemed they would hold true. The second week passed quickly by, finding Sasuke training relentlessly, to the point of total exaustion.

And so the years passed also, each one finding the boy much stronger than the last. His only dreams were those which were decided for him by his brother, nothing more, nothing less. Yet, it was these dreams that made him better, made him far superior to all the rest. Or so he thought, but thinking was good enough for the boy.

At last he became a ninja. While each child before him had seen this as time for celebration, Sasuke merely saw it as a necessary thing, no cause for happiness, for he had given that up long ago. As the children in front of him accepted their new position, so he did also. To him, it was nothing, only expected.

He had become beautiful, and his classmates had noticed. Too often, he felt, he found himself the object of their affections. The females wished to be liked by him, and the males wished to be more like him. Sasuke himself merely wished that they would all stop. None of them knew his pain, his daily torture. He wished they would all stop pretending to care.

Adults in the village despaired over what to do with him. At this point in their career, young ninjas were paired into trios, to be trained by a higher level teacher. Yet, Sasuke refused to work with others. Nevertheless, they placed him in a team, and prayed.

At first it seemed that their plan had failed. Sasuke continued to be anti-social, seeing the teamwork as a waste of time and effort. Besides, they had to admit, placing that Sakura girl, who was obviously infatuated with the raven-haired boy, in the same team as the object of her obsession hadn't been the greatest idea. His other teammate, however, seemed to be an even worse choice. The boy, Naruto, was loud and obnoxious, where Sasuke was quiet and withdrawn. He was bright and cheery, whereas Sasuke was dark and cold.

An apathetic teenager, a loud, obnoxious child, and a drooling fangirl. Such were the makings of a perfect team.

Those were Kakashi's thoughts, right after being placed as the trio's new teacher. He smiled lightly at their attempts to snatch the two, tiny bells from his grasp. He knew that the test he was about to give them would be the hardest of their lives. Possibly more so than the rest of his classes, he thought bemusedly, since two of their member had such tragic, unforgiving pasts. Watching this new team, Kakashi couldn't help but feel a small pang of sorrow and sympathy for the young ninjas. They wanted so hard to become gennin, he knew, and this test he ws about to give them...

...no one had ever passed.

At last, the rules were given, and the test began. Kakashi watched idly from a nearby bush, where he went undetected by his students. And then, out of nowhere, his students passed the test. By a simple act of kindness, they had secured their position of gennin. He smiled to himself. These kids had nerve. The teacher waited in the bushes a while longer, then stepped out into the open, to reveal his presence to the children.

"You broke the rules." he said sternly, glaring down at the children. Sasuke merely shrugged, while Sakura looked ready to beg for forgiveness. Naruto, still tied to the stump, launched into a pooly planned explanation. Kakashi almost smiled, looking down at his new team. _So different, _he thought. Silencing Naruto with a wave of his hand, he smiled, his one visible eye closing to prove his emotion to the students. "You passed."

The was silence for the smallest fraction of a moment. And then, "WHAT?!" from Naruto. The other two merely looked confused. _Yes, so different, _he thought once more, shaking his head lightly. "I said, you passed the test," he explained calmly.

At last the boy stopped cheering, and Kakashi sent his students home. Turning his back to them, he directed his feet to a familiar path, and took it, making his way to the memorial. Kneeling there at the foot of the stone monument, he raised his hands and carefully moved his hitae-ate off of his left eye, revealing a blood-red sharingan.

"My regards, Obito," he said quietly, running his fingers across one of the many names written across the stone. "The Uchiha clan has turned out so many brilliant shinobi, as you were...but Sasuke..." he trailed off. There were so many things he could say, so many ways to describe the young Uchiha. "He's so cold. Just like his brother. I fear I may not be able to get through to him. It may be hopeless to even try."

And he swore he heard the words float through the air: _Look underneath the underneath. _

* * *

Hmm...okay, so I sorta like this one. I wrote a bit of it one day when I was bored, and since my internet was down, I just decided to finish it. Feedback would be great.

I was talking to Muria about my views on Sasuke, about how I think that the whole massacre thing totally screwed him up, and how he's just a little kid who seriously needs a hug and some common sense ((a fear of snakes might also have come in handy)), and looking back on what I wrote the other day, I just decided to try and write this. Because I wanted to, no other reason. I was also watching some Naruto episodes, episodes 1-5, I believe, and Kakashi's test just struck me as really odd, really kind of...a hard test, for such young children. I had to write about it, and I threw in Kakashi's catch phrase for good measure. Just be thankful I didn't go all Kingdom Hearts on you guys and start throwing in "Got it memorized?" or something...xD

So yeah, the story kind of focuses on Sasuke for most of the story, and then kinda goes off into Kakashi's point of view...and for those fo you that don't know who Obito is, he was one of Kakashi's teammates, someone who died, but he gave Kakashi his sharingan eye before he died. Some people think he's Tobi, from the Akatsuki, because Tobi is said to have a sharingan eye, but only one. Look Obito up in wikipedia, for more info.

Akane


End file.
